Since the invention of the V8 engine, there've been plenty of crazy buggers drawn to jamming them into the smallest, lightest cars possible. By the 1960s, Carroll Shelby had found his calling by shoehorning Ford V8s into li'l English roadsters like the AC Ace and Sunbeam Alpine, creating the Shelby Cobra and Sunbeam Tiger in the process. These days, a common candidate for V8 upgrade is the rear-drive Mazda Miata, which has a robust architecture that can handle the extra torque. V8-powered Monster Miatas: surprising the hell out of stoplight challengers since the second Clinton AdMinistration.